Three presidential aircraft put on sale to pay for two new ones for Tinubu and Shettima

NIGERIA'S federal government has put three of the aircraft in the presidential fleet up for sale as part of a plan to cut the excessive spending on maintenance that is a huge drain on scarce government revenue.

Despite Nigeria's current economic crisis, she has a huge presidential fleet made up of airplanes and four helicopters and selling off the three aircraft would half the number of jets it has.

Maintained by the Presidential Air Fleet (Paf), an arm of the Office of the National Security Adviser, the aircraft include a Boeing 737 business jet (BBJ), a Gulfstream G550, a Gulfstream GV, two Falcon 7x and one Challenger CL605. Insiders, however, said at least half of the entire fleet is made up of unserviceable or failing aircraft, necessitating the need to dispose those considered to be burdens.

Apparently, the jets pencilled down for sale include the a Boeing 737 business jet, one Gulfstream and a Falcon 7x. To facilitate the sale, the federal government has appointed US airline marketer, JetHQ, as the broker for the sale of the three aircraft.

An exclusive marketing agreement had been signed between the Nigerian government and the company giving the firm permission to value the three aircraft and subsequently market them. Insiders say proceeds from the sale would go into procuring a new jet for the fleet, for which a search is currently ongoing.

This development comes on the back of a recent recommendation by the House of Representatives committee on national security and intelligence that two aircraft should be purchased for use by the president and the vice-president. Shehu Buba Umar, the chairman of the senate committee on national security and intelligence, also supported the recommendation by the lower chamber’s committee.

One Paf official said: “We saw the report and recommendation by the lawmakers but the truth of the matter is that we cannot afford to buy two aircraft at a go, even though we are selling off others. The approval now is to find one whose cost is not too much that we can augment with what we raise from this sale.

“We have received two offers for the BBJ and one for the Falcon X but the national security adviser insisted that we must press for a better deal instead of rushing to have a bad deal for the government." Reports suggest that the marketing firm has already submitted three bids from buyers to the Office of the National Security Adviser for consideration.

Among other things,  the condition of the presidential air fleet has raised lately, with safety concerns highlighted about the condition of the aircraft transporting Nigerian leaders. In April, President Bola Tinubu resorted to using a commercial aircraft to fly to the World Economic Forum in Riyadh after the presidential jet he travelled with to Netherlands developed a fault.

Around the same time, vice president Kashim Shettima was pictured arriving in Ogun state in a chartered aircraft. In early May, Mr Shettima had to abort his trip to the US mid-air after the aircraft transporting him developed an engine fault.

For his latest trip to South Africa, Tinubu also had to make use of a private airplane, a development some diplomatic experts said would give bad optics for Nigeria in the global scene. While federal lawmakers and a section of Nigerians endorse purchasing new aircraft to address the concerns, others believe that it would be insensitive at a time of economic hardship.